Three thousand dollars may not seem like a low price (if beauty is in the eye of the beholder then I guess price is in the wallet of the purchaser) but for what it offers, BlackMagic Design’s new BlackMagic Cinema Camera is downright cheap by industry standards.

The camera, which marks BlackMagic Design’s first foray into camera making, boasts the ability to record 2.5K video in RAW, uncompressed formats. By comparison, cameras like Canon’s 5D Mark III — and even the new EOS 1D-C — can’t compete because they use what’s called h.264 compression. And while the 1D-C will offer 4K resolution (4,096 x 2,160), the BlackMagic Cinema Camera’s 2.5K (2432 x 1366) — paired with the ability to shoot RAW — should still be more resolution than anybody in or out of their right mind needs, while also outperforming the DSLR in way of dynamic range.

If you want more info on the impressive new camera you can either visit BlackMagic Design’s website, or head over to Director of Photography John Brawley’s blog where’s he’s posted his observations alongside several videos shot using the Cinema Camera.